Montreal's fire department is urging people to make what could be a life-saving decision to ensure all smoke alarms in their home are functional.

Firefighters are touring the island and knocking on doors this weekend to remind people to make sure their devices are installed and working.

Last year, they inspected 100,000 homes and found 30 per cent did not have working smoke detectors.

In 2011, 16 people died on the island of Montreal in fires.

Of those, 80 per cent had no smoke alarms in their home or the devices weren’t functioning.

Pierre Sigouin of the Montreal fire department's fire prevention division, said the number of non-functioning alarms they've found in their routine semi-annual inspections has been around the same for the last decade.

They want to see that figure drop, along with the number of fatal fires that may have been survivable had there been a smoke alarm.

"We don't lose people in commercial centres, in offices," he said. "We lose people in residential fires, so this is why it is important."

Fatal fires in Montreal in 2011

Dec. 9: Rousselot Street (Villeray)

28-year-old man dies in an apartment fire in the Villeray district. The building’s alarms were working, but there was no smoke detector in the apartment.